S'more of Our Town

This is the first house we built. Andy got to live out his dream of being an architect and drew up the design. It was an adventure living in a tiny rental with seven children and the eighth on the way. We thought we would save money by doing our own cleaning. That worked out just great...everytime there was a BIG cleaning deadline, the husband would be out of town. So, the pregnant wife would haul construction debris from the house to the curb. Sweep like a maniac and try to keep her crazy band of yahoos from injuring themselves while they "helped". Also, Andy did all of the electrical and thanks to a flakey brick driveway craftsman--he just up and disappeared, left all of his tools and even his lunchbox, Andy also cut, arranged and placed every brick in our driveway.

We also saved money by purchasing the old flooring from a high school gym. The kids got paid to pull out the nails and Andy installed it in the raquetball court. Tedious? Yes. Crazy? A little. But it looked great and was perfect for those rainy days we get around here.

This was the site of many fun parties. The next door neighbors became bestest friends with our kids and had good times running back and forth. Shane was born and learned to walk and talk. Soon he was running back and forth too. We moved, they moved, but the kids still go back and forth!

Our back fence bordered the church's baseball field. It was so nice for the seminary age kids to walk out the back door to class every morning. It was also convenient for the Teachers when they forgot the bread. Both wards knew they could come to the back door and get bread. I warned the people who bought the house that they should be prepared for that.

We lived here for 3 years. Then we found the perfect spot to build again. Because we were completely out of our minds.